CAP 25 - Part 9 - CAP 25g Full Movepool Submissions

Go to page

spin, spin, spin

NEW: This is a Celebration CAP, meaning that we are going out of our way to break some rules. We'll be creating a set of three Pokemon this time around, a set of Fire, Water, and Grass-type starters! You can read exactly which rules we'll be breaking here and the logic behind Celebration CAPs here. Give these a read-through to get some context.

This is the thread for making full movepools for our upcoming CAP, Caribolt! At the conclusion of this thread, our Movepool Leader cbrevan will be compiling a slate of Final Submissions for the community to vote on, and the winning submission will become the official movepool for 25g.

We recently made significant changes to our policies regarding movepools, so do not assume that rules from past CAP projects apply. See this Policy Review thread for more information about the new rules.

We've had a discussion of movesets, which identified the competitive movesets we intend to be the most viable in standard OU play. Please see the concluding post in that thread, as well as the following poll, for more information on those movesets.

The following rules apply to all Movepool Submissions:

The movepool can contain a maximum of 85 total moves. You may have less than or equal to 85 moves, but not more.

There are no longer any limits to the number of Restricted Moves, as mentioned in articles on the CAP subsite and past CAP projects.

All movepools must have all the Mandatory Moves listed below.

No movepool may contain any of the Banned Moves listed below.

Any move not listed as Banned is provisionally allowed.

The Movepool Leader cbrevan and Topic Leader reachzero may add Banned moves during the course of this thread. If that happens, there will be ample notification in the thread, and you will have the opportunity to remove those moves from your movepool prior to final submissions.

Final Movepool Submissions must include all of these moves, and they cannot be Event Moves. Submissions that don't have all these moves will not be considered for slating.

Note that any move which is competitively inferior to a mandatory move is allowed as an exception to the bans above unless explicitly stated otherwise. This includes things such a weaker versions of mandatory STAB and coverage moves.

Description: This CAP is not one Pokemon, but three seperate Pokemon, based off of a Grass/Water/Fire starter trio.

Explanation: There is rarely such thing as a competitively viable starter Pokemon in the OU metagame, rare exceptions being Serperior, Greninja, and Blaziken for their insanely powerful abilities, and Infernape for his speed and movepool. Running three seperate CAP Processes with different Concepts can be loads of fun, and a nice way to celebrate CAP with our own starter trio! I'd love to see what the artists can come up with, and what pre-evos will be made alongside this trio, as well.
I've spoken to Birkal about this framework, and I've decided that this framework would definitely limit the Typing stage of each CAP, but not necessarily limit the Abilities stages, as Overgrow, Torrent, and Blaze aren't very competitively viable, and not necessarily limit the Stats stages, as starter trios tend not to share the same BSTs, giving us flexibility with where and how we want to place stats, especially with each "starter" most likely having a different concept from the others.

Possible Questions:
Is it possible to create a fully competitively viable Grass/Water/Fire trio?
What can be learned from a trio of Pokemon that will mostly likely check, if not counter, each other in a Rock Paper Scissors manner?
Exactly what does it take to create a fully competitively viable starter trio, something unprecedented in all of official, competitive Pokemon?

Of course, feedback is all but begged for as we work to flesh out this framework!

Description - These Pokemon each maximize the potential of their given, separate abilities by coordinating their movepools and that ability's competitive effect.

Justification - This is an Actualization concept much like Cyclohm's original "Neglected Ability." In my research on what made Pokemon with "Starter Level" stats effective, the common denominator was they all had abilities they used to full effect with their other competitive aspects. This framework gives us a unique opportunity to A-B test some fairly powerful abilities we usually shy away from and bring out an effective competitive starter trio.

Questions To Be Answered -

Which Abilities are best suited to a full, comprehensive exploration of their specific mechanics?

Why does Ability seem to be the common factor in taking "starter-esque" Pokemon into prominence (e.g. Protean and Battle Bond Greninja, Contrary Serperior, Speed Boost Blaziken to Ubers, etc.)

What is the threshold where maximizing an ability goes toi far, such as Blaziken's combination of Swords Dance, strong attack and mid-grade speed, and high BP STABS with Speed Boost or Protean Greninja's huge speed and just-varied enough movepool in prior Generations?

How will introducing three specialized Pokemon into the metagame at once impact it overall?

Which type combinations along with the starter types are best suited to maximizing the potential of a specific ability, and why?

Explanation - Competitive Pokemon has suffered from a massive power creep for a long time. In order for a Pokemon to be effective, not only does it have to be fairly good generally, it also can't be directly outclassed. Considering our Framework, our Pokemon are already competing against Heatran/Volcarona, Toxapex/Keldeo/Greninja, and Ferrothorn/Kartana for offensive or defensive roles. However, each of those Pokemon have their own flaws that give our FWG CAP Trio space to explore if we are focused on a key niche for each of them.

Let's take Grass for example, and Tough Claws. Tough Claws boosts one of the most incredibly CAP-relevant moves, Grass Knot, because it is a special contact attack. Only Mega Metagross ever even came close to utilizing this combination, and Mega-Meta was banned (for other reasons, of course). Grass could also use it's huge number of healing options with Triage, including priority Strength Sap that even outruns Bullet Punch. Nearly every Fire attack has a secondary effect chance perfect for Serene Grace or Sheer Force. Water has a few specific moves that would also love Serene Grace, but would also appreciate breaking through Gastrodon and Mollux with Mold Breaker. Suffice it to say, this concept gives us an ability to meet our Framework demands and think through a huge combination of synergistic types and abilities in a single project.

spin, spin, spin

Welcome to movepool submissions for Caribolt! In this thread we will create submissions for Caribolt's movepool to determine what moves it will have available to it. At the end of this thread I'll compile a slate of all the legal entries for us to vote on, so make sure you carefully read the thread OP for submission instructions.

This is a flavour stage first and foremost, so feel free to delve as deep into trends, lore, and what not when making your post. My only requirement for the flavour part of this stage is that posters take the time to explain their decisions when choosing what moves to add and moves to neglect in their movepool. I won't slate movepools that lack reasoning, and you're better off giving an explanation anyways since thats something voters will look for.

While this is a flavor stage, there is a minor competitive aspect to it in that the banned moves list is not all encompassing. I'm sure some people have noticed that moves such as Dragon Dance are not banned- this is intentional. It's not possible for the TLT to ban every single competitive move, which is why we'll handle moves as they are submitted. The general rule for this stage is that posters should exercise common sense when building movepools and avoid moves that are competitively viable in nature. I'll define competitively viable moves as moves that are able to interact with our threatlist with noticeable results, so if you're unsure about a move, take a look at the threatlist and ask yourself what matchups it may swing. If you're unsure, tag me in the thread and I'll give a ruling. If you think a move banned this way should be allowed, I'm also willing to hear appeals posted in the thread.

Make sure you include all the mandatory moves in the OP, including the universal and starter moves for this stage. Likewise, double check to make sure your movepool lacks any of the banned moves listed in the OP. Also make sure you put Final Submission on your movepool before the thread closes. Also make sure you put Final Submission on your movepool before the thread closes. I hate disqualifying good movepools for such a simple mistake and I'll do my best to check movepools prior to the deadline, but keep in mind that I'll be managing three threads and could very well miss something. Check your own movepools to be safe!

Bolded Moves are Mandatory
Moves with strike-through are repeats and are not counted in the totals

HS - Horn Leech

HS - Electro Ball

HS - Icy Wind

HS - Body Slam

1 - Tackle

1 - Leer

1 - Absorb

1 - Mist

Evo - Horn Leech

3 - Absorb

6 - Mist

10 - Quick Attack

12 - Powder Snow

15 - Leech Seed

17 - Spark

20 - Bullet Seed

24 - Magnet Bomb

29 - Ice Ball

32 - Energy Ball

39 - Seed Bomb

42 - Wild Charge

48 - Synthesis

55 - Wood Hammer

62 - Double Edge

Total: 21
There were two main categories of attacks that I focused on in Caribolt's level up pool.

One of these were attacks that involved Caribolt slamming itself into the opponent. Large members of the deer family, such as moose, are able to run quickly, generating a lot of force due to their large mass. Caribolt's design is based on one of the largest members of the deer family to have existed, the Irish Elk. These moves are: Body Slam, Tackle, Quick Attack, Spark, Wild Charge, Double Edge, and Wood Hammer.

The second category of attacks took inspiration from the rail gun design Caribolt has strapped to the top of its head, these being attacks that are projectile based. A Pokemon with the ability Bulletproof would be immune to these attacks. The moves that fit this category are: Electro Ball, Bullet Seed, Ice Ball, Magnet Bomb, Energy Ball, and Seed Bomb.

There are a few moves that don't really fit into either category. Horn Leech is probably the most flavorful attack a Grass Pokemon with antlers could get and it is a required move, so I decided on that as the evo move. For the low level Grass move, I decided to go with Absorb rather than Vine Whip, Leafage, etc because I felt that flinging leaves or using vines to whip the opponent didn't really fit well with the design of Caribolt, but Absorb makes a good stepping stone to the more powerful Horn Leech.

For the type distribution of the level up pool, I decided to go a bit light on Electric attacks but patched it up with Normal attacks since it's hidden ability would turn those into Electric attacks. I did include Spark and Wild Charge as good early and late game options for a hypothetical Overgrow Caribolt. I also included a few Ice type moves because I felt like it fit with both the animal Caribolt is based on, the Irish Elk, which lived during the Ice Age and its namesake, the Caribou(aka Reindeer), is an arctic animal.

For the evo move, I wanted it to be both a move I felt fit the Pokemon and one that could be used competitively.

TM 01 - Work Up

TM 05 - Roar

TM 06 - Toxic

TM 07 - Hail

TM 08 - Bulk Up

TM 10 - Hidden Power

TM 11 - Sunny Day

TM 15 - Hyper Beam

TM 18 - Rain Dance

TM 17 - Protect

TM 20 - Safeguard

TM 21 - Frustration

TM 24 - Thunderbolt

TM 25 - Thunder

TM 22 - Solar Beam

TM 27 - Return

TM 31 - Brick Break

TM 32 - Double Team

TM 42 - Facade

TM 44 - Rest

TM 45 - Attract

TM 47 - Low Sweep

TM 48 - Round

TM 49 - Echoed Voice

TM 53 - Energy Ball

TM 59 - Brutal Swing

TM 68 - Giga Impact

TM 72 - Volt Switch

TM 73 - Thunder Wave

TM 75 - Swords Dance

TM 78 - Bulldoze

TM 86 - Grass Knot

TM 87 - Swagger

TM 88 - Sleep Talk

TM 90 - Substitute

TM 93 - Wild Charge

TM 96 - Nature Power

TM 100 - Confide

Total: 36

Field

Power Whip (Smeargle)

Boomburst (Exploud)

Rapid Spin (Donphan)

Natural Gift (Donphan)

Electric Terrain (Manectric)

Grassy Terrain (Gogoat)

Parabolic Charge (Dedenne)

Total: 7
I decided to have both terrains obtained by breeding instead for consistency's sake. I added Parabolic Charge to further expand on draining moves from the level up pool.

Knock Off

Worry Seed

Grass Pledge

Snore

Seed Bomb

Giga Drain

Frenzy Plant

Synthesis

Heal Bell

Total: 7
Just like with Parabolic Charge, Giga Drain was included to further expand Caribolt
s access to draining moves. Heal Bell was included as a Christmasy themed move

Total: 4
Celebrate and Silver Wind are a reference to this being a celebration of CAP for its "silver anniversary". Magnet Rise is on there so it's able to help Poke Santa deliver presents of course. Cooper is the name of the user who started the CAP project and 003089 is their user number(thanks Dogfish).

Caribolt's Level-Up moveset follows nearly the same exact pattern as Decidueye.
Flavor explanations:
- Learns Wild Charge upon evolving like the how Incineroar and Decidueye learn a move from their secondary STAB upon evolving
- Both Sawsbuck and Venusaur get Take Down and Double-Edge via Level-up, so Caribolt should too
- Learns Synthesis at the same level as Decidueye
- Learns Double-Edge by level-up like Venusaur does
- Learns Swords Dance at Level 60 like Decidueye learns Nasty Plot at Level 60
- Learns Me First via Level up like Stantler does

Total Unique Moves: 82
If anyone has any feedback, feel free to reply to me here. I tried making a movepool that I thought was appropriate for Caribolt based on its design, but I understand there is no one right way to give this mon flavor :)

In my level up moves, I gave Caribolt moves like Noble Roar really just because it has such a majestic feeling to it, and it feels like something "royal enough" to warrant the use of a move like Noble Roar. This is my justification for including Boomburst in the level up move list as well. I included Zap Cannon in Caribolt's base moves as well because I wanted to stay true to Magistrum's supporting art when building the movepool. Plus, Caribolt concentrating and firing a cannon of electricity from its antlers is a really cool image. Speaking of antlers, I feel that Caribolt's antlers have more use than just attacking. The lore I have been constructing in my head is that Caribolt is both a defender of the forest, but also tends to it. For that reason, I decided to add Rototiller to its level up moves.

I added moves like Aerial Ace, Low Sweep, and Smart Strike to Caribolt's movepool because I can see it using its antlers to use these moves. I also include Focus Blast, Dazzling Gleam, Signal Beam, and Flash Cannon because, along with Zap Cannon, I can see Caribolt being capable of firing off a lot of attacks involving concentrated energy and/or light. Lastly, I gave Caribolt Agility as an egg move, because it seems like it has the capacity to move extremely fast.

I followed a pattern similar to the recent starters such as Serperior and Chesnaught. I added a lot of flavor moves, heavily referencing 25g's design. As other common starters, it starts with weaker moves such as Tackle, Absorb and Growl, as well as nice flavor options like Ion Deluge and Horn Leech, the later which is also our evolution move of choice. Early on the moveset, it gets common Grass- and Electric-type move that are staples in common pokemon of these types such as Spark and Shock Wave as well as flavor moves like Double Kick and Take Down, that are common in deer-ish pokemon like Sawsbuck and Stantler. Midway through the movepool, it gets Stomp, Wild Charge and Giga Drain, powerful STAB/flavor options. In the later parts of the movepool, it gains Zap Cannon and Sheer Cold - referencing it's static design as well as it's Elk inspiration (an animal that is found in cold places). It also gains the powerful Double-Edge, common in deer-ish and horse-ish pokemon.

CAP25g-1, CAP25g-2 - Feint Attack
CAP25g-1, CAp25g-2 - Mega Drain
CAP25g-1 - Quick Attack
By a prior evolution, we get Mega Drain and Quick Attack, moves that are commonly seen in this category on a few starter pokemon's movepool. We also get Feint Attack, common in pokemon like Deerling.

Since this is a Celebration CAP, I decided to give it Celebrate in an event. I added an extra event for flavor celebrating Christmas - Present is obvious and Magnet Rise because of Santa's flying reindeer.
Thank you, Dogfish44 for kindly allowing me to use your event teamplate!

Snore
Electroweb
UproarShock Wave
Giga DrainSynthesis
Endeavor
Icy Wind
Seed Bomb
Hyper VoiceKnock Off
Not much to say. We get access to the moves we need in Synthesis and Knock Off as well as flavor moves like Icy Wind and Shock Wave. I removed Bounce, although it is very flavorful, it can mess around with our checks and counters list.

Grass Pledge
Frenzy Plant

Aurora Beam (Ninetales-alola)Sheer Cold (Ninetales-alola)Boomburst (Exploud)Power Whip* (Venusaur)Rapid Spin (Excadrill)Electric Terrain* (Ampharos)Grassy Terrain* (Venusaur)Body Slam (Meganium)Natural Gift* (Cherrim)
Here are some moves I didn't think would quite fit in the learnset, like Boomburst and Rapid Spin, as well as flavor options like Aurora Beam and Sheer Cold. I put it on the Field and Grass egg-groups to get those moves, while also referencing it's design (similar to other pokemon in Field and Grass egg groups).

hi, just a question, it might have been addressed somewhere else but i couldn't find an answer at a quick glance so i'll just ask anyway,
In the Banned Moves list, there is a statement "Competitive Special Attack boosting status moves aside from Work Up "
would this include Sp.atk boost as a Zmove side effect, for example, Z-Heal Block giving a nasty plot boost?

We Eat Losers

Cardibolt is basically wrapped up, and it was fun making its movepool! I went with a classic Quadruped vibe to its move pool, with a rather nuanced take on the Rudolph vibe it has, instead of making it its dominant flavour, since other than the red nose (its not even bright), its a far cry from our favourite Reindeer.

Caribolt's movepool is simply themed around how grass starters and common hoofed Pokemon, with some nods to rail gun vibes that the artist intended. So I went with that. Each of my starters has a particular pattern with their level up moves - they start out with a certain number of heart scale moves, the first being a primary STAB attack that is also their Evo Move. Then they have four attacks at zero level, one off flavourful off STAB or utility attack, followed by the three basic attacks that Gen VII starters learn (Normal Attack, stat debuff and elemental attack)

Heart Scale and Evo Move
Electric Terrain is a common HS move for electric types. Power Whip doesn't feel right for a leafy deer, so I dropped it here. Horn Leech being the Evo Move makes for a deer

Pokemon (though it does sorta limit how prevo art will look). I chose Quick Attack as the first level up move since deers are known to be quite quick and agile.

The Fawn of an Era
Caribolt learns Double Kick, a common attack that hoofed pokemon learn at an early level. They then gain Leech Seed, notably at the same level as Sawsbuck. Finally at the same level as the initial evolution, it channels its electrical process as Spark.

Leaves a' Plenty
Caribolt's design is heavily centred around the sharp holly leaves, so its increasing ability to manipulate leaves shows as it moves from Leafage to Razor Leaf. Next young Caribolt learns to increase its speed with Agility to evade predators, as all hoofed Pokemon do. Then they practice tackling teach other with Take Down. After taking so much damage, they learn to convert sunlight into healing energy to do it all over again. Finally, at the cusp at evolution, it starts channeling the ability to shoot projectile seeds (Bullet Seed), a precursor to its rail gun attributes.

Rapid Fire Rudolph!
Finally at full strength, adult Caribolt charge each other for mates (Wild Charge, Double Edge). Using its horn and luminescent nose, it shines bright light to dazzle would be foes (Flash). Fully mastering its powerful projectiles, it can now control explosive seeds and massive surges of sharp leaves (Seed Bomb, Leaf Storm). Finally, Caribolt in its shining glory uses its rail gun antlers to fire pure electrical energy (Zap Cannon).

Basically pretty standard moves for Grass and Electric type Pokemon here. Flash Cannon is another subtle nod to its nuanced inspiration from Rudolph, and from the funny way deer interact with bright light (Deer in headlights), but in reverse.

Just like all these other egg moves, its really just a dumping ground for required moves that are scantly on flavour. Another fun tidbit referencing Christmas - Caribolt learning Rapid Spin from Delibird.

Credit to Dogfish for the original idea of the event, I just decided to personalize each around certain aspects of flavour. This one leans full force into the Christmas angle. Celebrate is the occasion. Standard signature Horn Leech. Present because Santa and Magnet Rise because Fly is broken and the Deer needs to fly somehow. The OT: Nicholas is a reference to Jolly Saint Nick, while the ID number is the coordinates of the North Pole!

Dazzling Gleam - 1) I think Fairy coverage is a bit too potent on Caribolt, as it mess with the most important of counters. 2) It does have slight Rudolph ness but we dont need to load every light based attack under the sun.

Horn Attack - Funny enough, no Pokemon based on Deer or related animals have access to this attack, and Horn Attack (and Deer based Pokemon) have been around for generations. So I decided to keep up appearances with Caribolt and follow in GameFreak's foot steps.

Smart Strike - Basically the same reasoning as Horn Attack, but much less generations.

Ice Flavour - Flavour is subjective, and to me I just do not see any ice flavour on Caribolt. Just because Caribolt has some Christmas themes warrant Ice flavour either. Especially since Ice Beam and other ice attacks are banned, making the other inclusions rather pointless. If you want to see my thoughts on the two most controversial Ice attacks discussed, Aurora Beam and Sheer Cold, click here.

Required moves are bolded and repeated moves are in italics. Feedback is appreciated!

Movepool Flavor:

Caribolt is a proud and fiercely competitive warrior. Despite its great physical strength, it prefers to begin battle by launching powerful blasts from its railgun-like horns. It will target its opponents with a variety of ranged attacks: spheres of photosynthetic energy, beams of brilliantly dancing light from its northern homeland, and overwhelming but inaccurate bursts of electromagnetic force. These showy displays will scare off hungry Sneasels with ease, and they provide a way for rival Caribolt to duel in the mating season without threatening unnecessary injury.

Only against enemies who present a serious challenge will a Caribolt charge, striking with fervent and occasionally reckless attacks. Sharp antlers threaten fatal wounds, and powerful kicks punish foes who miss an important strike. Caribolt are so competitive that they may resort to underhanded tactics when desperate. Even the winner of these battles rarely escapes unscathed; such is the immense strength and pride of these Pokemon.

At early levels, I have Caribolt and its pre-evolutions learn mostly physical attacks, assuming that the baby elk starter would not yet have a mighty cannon on its head. I justified Leafage and Razor Leaf based on Caribolt's brushy green back texture. Perhaps the elk can fling leaves and summon vines from its broad, spiky shoulders. In the same vein, I included Power Whip as a Heart Scale move. Charge makes sense with the Grass-type's tendency to absorb solar energy, and Spark is learned after the first evolution, possibly after a middle stage gains the Electric typing. I intentionally excluded Leech Seed from the level-up movepool, as passive life draining does not fit with Caribolt's proud warrior spirit.

Horn Leech seems like an appropriate level-up move to accompany the development of Caribolt's majestic antlers. In order to showcase their railgun-like design, I focused on moves like Aurora Beam, Energy Ball, and Zap Cannon at later levels, despite Caribolt's bias as a physical attacker. This follows a precedent set by Torterra, who also learns powerful special moves despite having an even bigger bias toward physical attacks. I also included Wild Charge, Takedown, and Double-Edge to provide some raw power while still fitting into the mold of a Grass starter, since Venusaur learns the latter two moves by level-up. I featured Ion Deluge as the requisite high level status move, following in the example of Zebstrika, and it fits thematically thanks to Caribolt's rare x4 resistance to Electric moves. Hyper Beam is a powerful and railgun-appropriate capstone move, fitting nicely with the Hidden Ability Galvanize as a way for Caribolt to unleash its true power.

I exactly matched the levels at which Caribolt learns moves to those of Decidueye and the other Sun/Moon starters. Technically, we are making a second round of Gen 7 starters, so I thought that this would make sense. Special thanks to hawk1113 for the feedback that encouraged me to do this!

Brutal Swing is objectively weaker than Knock Off in singles, and the image of an elk brutally swinging its antlers across multiple enemies is quite flavorful. Bulldoze is almost mandatory, flavor-wise, on a muscular, quadrupedal Pokemon like Caribolt. I included three weather moves; a Grass/Electric type will be able to abuse both Sunny Day and Rain Dance, and Hail works as a non-competitive move that brings some additional icy flavor. However I excluded Aurora Veil, because not even all Ice-types learn the move and it seemed like overkill on a Pokemon whose strongest Ice move is Aurora Beam. I also included Flash Cannon, as it is relatively weak coming off a base 77 Special Attack and there is strong flavor justification for it thanks to the railgun antlers and Zap Cannon as a penultimate level-up move. Using Gamefreak's other deer-Pokemon as templates, I excluded several other moves that are not found on either Stantler and Sawsbuck. For example, False Swipe seems to be mainly for Pokemon with clawed forelimbs and Low Sweep is found only on bipedal Pokemon, so neither of these TMs made it into Caribolt's final movepool.

For the Egg Group, I decided that only Field fit better than Field/Grass, since common mammalian Grass-types like Sawsbuck and Chesnaught do not belong to the latter Egg Group. All the Egg moves are therefore available from the Field group, and this restriction is partially why I included Power Whip as a Heart Scale move (because it's not accessible from Field).

Feint Attack was added to fit with the other Dark moves Knock Off and Brutal Swing, and especially because it is a level-up move for Sawsbuck, who is clearly Caribolt's closest relative in the Pokemon world. Pusuit was another appealing Dark move to get from Zebstrika. I didn't want every Egg move to be competitively viable, and I wanted another, weaker Ice move to make Aurora Beam seem relatively important, so I included Powder Snow. (Also, more mons need to learn Powder Snow via breeding).

Icy Wind fits thematically with the other Ice moves in Caribolt's arsenal, and Laser Focus allows it to zero in on targets with its railgun. Low Kick is a somewhat weak Fighting move with strong flavor for a Pokemon with such powerful hooves. Signal Beam was added because it's a common coverage move for Electric-types and I wanted another "beam" move to fit with the flavor of Aurora Beam being learned by level-up. Bug coverage is also quite common on Grass-types, although the two types do not pair well offensively. I excluded Electroweb because it is an Electric move that Zebstrika lacks, and flavor-wise that is the most similar Electric-type to Caribolt. I also excluded Hyper Voice, because it's a move not learned by Sawsbuck, Stantler, or Zebstrika.

Grass Pledge
Frenzy Plant

No explanation needed; these are required.

Discharge

Discharge is learned instead of Zap Cannon by a pre-evolution that does not yet have the "railgun antlers" necessary to fire the latter move.

I want Caribolt, Smokomodo, and Snaelstrom to all be on the same page when it comes to event moves. So nothing unexpected here, I simply added Celebrate for the Celebration CAP. Special thanks to Dogfish44 for the event template! Original Trainer is Louis, named after Louis Octave Fauchon-Villeplee, an inventor of the electric cannon. ID number is 1974, the year renowned paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould published an important paper on the Irish Elk.

I decided to lean into the "warrior-druid" and "I've got a railgun for antlers" aspects of Caribolt's design, rather than focusing on any connections to Rudolph or Santa's flying reindeer, which I consider a bit cheesy and not fitting with its majestic appearance. I notice some people also added a fair amount of sound moves to go along with Boomburst, but in my opinion that is one of the least flavorful of the required moves as Caribolt lacks an obvious connection to noise-making other than the incidental fact that cannons are loud. Therefore I relegated Boomburst to an egg move and only included the sound move Uproar, which could also represent a sound produced by the railgun, could be seen as a precursor to Boomburst, and has wide distribution anyway. For the warrior druid flavor, I included Low Kick and Bulldoze (which a surprising number of people omitted) and several flavorful Dark moves to go along with the mandatory Knock Off and make it seem not out of place. The railgun antlers flavor was even more important to me and influenced my special coverage and capstone moves. I hope I did Magistrum justice and made a fun movepool in the process!

Most level up moves follow the usual standard of weak low level moves, going up in power with levels, and the late level 40 stat lowering move (Credit to Dogfish44 for the idea) for atleast gen 7 starters. I personally think caribolt is more of a powerful pokemon with its stab moves rather than a diverse coverage pokemon, so i opted to not add offensive coverage moves in its level up move pool, so i stuck to grass/electric with a bit of normal sprinkled in there. I also chose noble roar like some other entries, due to it's majesticness (Or atleast having a noble look, like a king of the forest) as it's something i could see this pokemon having in it's movepool, and agility to boost its speed, allowing for some nice agility + boomburst sets for sweeping potential.
I know the level-up pool isn't diverse, and like i explained earlier its on purpose, but its not the first time this is seen, if you look at primarina, it mainly has water, fairy and normal-type attacks and icy wind, not very diverse if you ask me, but its competitive playstyle relies on tms and such to teach it coverage moves which allows specs sets to be very viable. So it has been seen before, and used quite effectively.

Body slam, natural gift, double-edge and boomburst, all 4 required moves i think it could get via breeding, nothing too special there.
Giga drain is nice coverage, and while yes it gets it from movetutor (see down below) there's alot of pokemons that get the same move multiple ways.
Discharge is just stab, with good paralysis chance, nothing stands out there to me.
Solar Blade is an interesting choice, given it's the signature move of Lurantis, and also a physical version of solar beam (with a little bit more power) But i think Caribolt can really benefit from it, allowing it to work on sun teams as a physical attacker, which is something many great grass-types or chlorophyll users lack, having to rely on either power whip with 85% accuracy, wood hammer with recoil, or the weaker leaf blade as its best attack, while Lurantis can't really use sun + solar blade to much due to its low speed and mediocre stats, Caribolt has the speed and attack to utilize it as a potent sun sweeper, combined with agility (see level up) and a move like double-edge, it can get to insane speeds, and just power through with powerful stab moves, which just makes it so potent, even a choice scarf set can break walls, so i think solar blade helps accomplish what i really think Caribolt is: A fast deadly pokemon with powerful stab moves to break defensive pokemons that rely on defense rather than type matchup (Like Chansey for example)

For the tm's there's not much that stands out, most choices were either based on stab moves or requirements, and the 2 types of weather it can use, sun for solar beam and rain for thunder. I gave it roar due to it looking like it could use roar, plus it allows caribolt to not be set up fodder entirely, but it's using one of your 4 moves, so it's a risk to run if your team is not particularly weak to set-up, but it can definitely be worth it with the right match ups, or well wrong match ups with set-up. I also gave it nature power for the same reason as natural gift (Egg move), due to it being an elk, already having noble roar (level up) shows it to be powerful and mighty, and it's in nature being based off the irish elk, so nature power fit well (Plus it combines well with it's grassy/electric terrain, plus it allows it to punish some checks/counters with the right tapu's which i think is some good tech for Caribolt)
Not the best explanation for nature power, but i thought it fit quite well.

So here i find that there's 2 moves that's interesting, maybe 3 if you counter endeavor, the rest are just standard stab moves, and i'll go over my thought process for each one.
Endeavor: Just quickly wanted to get endeavor out of the way, according to some of the early games entry for the move, it gains more power the less hp it has, so basically reversal's effect, but without doing more damage, and i think it fits Caribolt alot, to stand until it's last breath, but reversal felt too powerful, so i went with endeavor.
Hyper Voice: While it does know boomburst as an egg move, this would allow Caribolt to work in doubles at the cost of some power (Should doubles cap become a thing one day... one day)
Knock Off: This was a requirement move, so i had to add it, but personally i don't think this fits that well, since it messes with necturna and pajantom match up, but i can see it work so i'm not that against it, just felt i'd go over why.

I'll go over each one individually.
Zap cannon: Like the application above me (Roland le preaux, i liked the idea of it, they gave a reasoning of railgun antlers) i thought it was a nice fit, allowing it a powerful move, that always paralyzes, but low accuracy.
Electro Ball: Given it's speed, it can benefit from a move vs slower pokemons to do more damage.
Feint: With galvanize, feint becomes an incredibly scary move, just look at mega pinsir and aerilate. While quick attack is more power, feint has a higher priority hitting +2 like extreme speed, but lower power, so it can be used as a priority counter over quick attack.
Power-Up Punch: With access to bulk up and fighting type moves with more power, i felt this was a mix of both, just handy for boosting.
Skull Bash: Powerful normal-type attack, raises defense, but takes 2 turns, allowing ground type switch-ins, so a risky choice, but can be deadly late game.

Celebrate is a given, since it's cap 25, and it's a celebration cap, so all starters (in my eyes) should have celebrate as an event move.
Bulk up and wild charge are mainly to fill, while giving it set-up since it learns them otherwise.
Leaf blade is for a reliable damaging physical grass type attack, that i felt didn't really fit in anywhere else, plus it gives a mix between power whip and horn leech, with 100% accuracy but no recovery, so it fits nicely, and a bit stronger than seed bomb, but some tournaments may limit event moves (Not sure) so that way leaf blade can't be used, so i think that's fine if compared to seed bomb.
The OT Is the latin name for Elk
The ID is the alphabetical location of the latin word herba, meaning grass
The location met is the name given to the combined landmass of europe and asia, where the irish elk has been known to live before going extinct, and Caribolt has been confirmed to be based off of the irish elk, so i found it fitting.

Caribolt has alot of checks and counters, along with some good limitations/banned moves, so it's hard to give it alot of diversity, which i incorporated to make Caribolt a strong breaker with its stab moves, kind of like hoopa-u with its hyperspace fury, even if resisted, not many pokemons want to switch in on it unless they're defensive and resist it, or 4x resists it, but the difference here being Caribolt has strong physical and special moves, so you have to be careful if you're not aware which set it is.
It has a few coverage moves like brick break, smart strike and knock off, which helps it out against opposing grass types that really doesn't care about electric or grass, while not overpowering them to prevent them from being counters, so it's a high risk to use caribolt, but against the right matchup it's worth it entirely.

From what I can tell, ice-type coverage seems very frequent on alot of movepools, this is where i chose a different route, since i felt ice-type coverage is too good for Caribolt, given that i think it helps a bit too much vs Cyclohm, which i otherwise think is a great counter, especially with the common theme of galvanize normal type moves like boomburst and double-edge. I know other counters like jumbao can work well, but it’s another ice-weak pokemon, which in turn lowers its viability vs Caribolt.
I personally felt hidden power was suitable as it cannot be given a z-move of the type, causing an actual good counter or two to exist defensively, rather than overpowering Caribolt with their high damage output.
With moves like swords dance and z-celebrate, Caribolt can gain alot of power, and use it’s strong stab moves to overpower, like tinted lens users without set-up or reliable offensive set-up. I’m aware of how Caribolt looks, and it could definitely use ice-type attacks, i just opted for Caribolt to be sheer power in its stab moves rather than alot of coverage, because it will change the playstyle of it alot, using it as a late-game sweeper due to it’s power and strong stab moves, or a breaker for the team for the same reason as the other one.
This is personal flavour, and i’m gonna stick to it (atleast for now) so please don’t try to explain why it should get some ice-type attacks as i know it fits on Caribolt.
So just a post edit: Ice type coverage outside of ice ball for physical and below 65 base power on the special side has been banned, so this is not really relevant, but i still find it important to read into why it was banned to get an insight on why i wrote this.

Thank you for reading my suggestion for a movepool for Caribolt. Should you have any suggestions let me know, or if you're interested in re-writing some of it, as long as you credit me you can copy what i wrote, afterall it's not only about who wins, it's about finding a movepool to benefit Caribolt.
Thanks for reading
~Madsi6

You can call me Jiggly

Alright, so a few notes on what makes a realistic looking Gen 7 Starter Movepool, as well as notes from DHR-107 that help when it comes to making a starter in general. The aim of this post is to try to get our movepools looking as much like realistic Gen 7 starters as we can!

(Post approved by Quanyails. If there are errors in it, yell at me ^^; )

Starter Core Moves
Starters each historically in the Level Up movepool have a handful of moves they're guarenteed. These moves don't have to be in the final evo (Swampert for instance doesn't get Hydro Pump, and needs Mudkip on that front to get the move), but they have to either be there or within the pre-vo movepool.

To wit, these moves are as follows, courtesy of DHR;

CORE – ANY ONE OF Tackle/Scratch/Pound
ANY ONE OF Growl/Tail Whip/Leer/Withdraw

Grass – ANY OF Vine Whip/Razor Leaf/Leafage/Absorb/Leech Seed/Synthesis
ANY OF Mega Drain/Giga Drain/Energy Ball/Seed Bomb
First evo learns all moves before Level 50

Fire – ANY OF Ember
ANY OF Flame Wheel/Flame Burst/Flamethrower/Flare Blitz
First evo learn all moves before Level 50 (Apart from Cyndaquil)

Water – ANY OF Water Gun/Bubble
ANY OF Hydro Pump
First evo learns all moves before Level 50

This actually only mandates four moves for each type, but it's something that's very important in developing a starter movepool that's going to feel like a starter.

Generation Seven Specific Notes
Gen 7 Starters have a few quirks that can make your movepools truly gel with Primarina, Decidueye, and Incineroar.

I'd say the first one is something we should all try to follow, whilst the latter two are more general observations that are more easily breakable?

Heart Scale moves, Evolution Moves and Level 0 Moves
Starters have some fairly strict rules for these particular moves, which often need to be handled delicately...

First, let's break down what these terms mean. I've put that bit into this Hide Tag;

Evolution moves are a new thing - essentially, they are always learnt when a Pokemon evolves. A Weedle that evolves into a Kakuna will always learn Harden, regardless of if the evolution happens at Level 7 or Level 70.

Level 0 moves are essentially moves learnt at Level 0. Some websites will display this differently (Veekun uses a - to indicate these moves, whilst Bulbapedia marks them as being Level 1 moves, which is the same thing). These are the moves that would be learnt if you were to hatch an egg containing the Pokemon in questions.

We then have Heart Scale moves. These are Level 0 moves which are not in the final four Heart Scale moves. As an example, let's say we have a Pokemon with the following movepool:

We would say that the Heart Scale moves are Blast Burn and Giga Impact. If you were to hatch an egg with that move setup, then you would hatch a Pokemon that has learnt Frenzy Plant, Hyper Beam, Hydro Cannon, and Roar of Time.

Now, there's a few simple rules that G7 starters all follow;

The Evo. move (usually a signature move) appears as the Evo. move, and then as a Heart Scale move

The four non-Heart Scale Level 0 rules are split into two pairs. The first two are the Level 0 moves for the Starter Prevos, the latter two are the first two moves the starter learns (Usually around level 4 and then level 8 or so).

Notice how Incineroar repeats the Growl-Lick Pair, and has HS moves of Darkest Lariat, Bulk Up, and Throat Chop.

Capstone Move
Incineroar, Primarina, and Decidueye all have a 'capstone' move (that is, their last move) as either a non-damaging move, or as an off-STAB attack. This might just be chance - Prima's Misty Terrain may imply that there's just less general care overall in the last move - but there is definitely no obligation to wrap up your movepools up with the standard 'big' moves.

Late-Game Stat Debuff
Another notable quirk of the Gen 7 trio is that each at Level 49 picks up a stat lowering move - Featherdance/Scary Face/Captivate. You can pick if you want to follow this or not (it's certainly not true of all starters), but it's an example of the patterns you can spot from within starter movepools.

- Moves are meant to be learned by the base form at strict 4-level intervals, much like Treecko. Increasing 1-level delays are meant to start at the classic 16/36, but some breathing room is allowed.
- Electric Terrain as a level 1/HS move, as it often (always for evolved Pokémon) is.
- Leafage as a starting move, consistent with Rowlet.
- Stun Spore as an early move, sort of implying an Electric typing even if the base form will be pure Grass.
- Due to its position, Spark works perflectly if the middle form is already Electric, and even if it doesn't it still implies an incoming Electic typing (notable, Rowlet gets Ominous Wind at level 16). Anyways, it could always be replaced by another move whenever the pre-evolution movepools get built.
- Leech Seed is unusually late, which however is not without precedent (Torterra).
- Take Down is a common charging move among quadrupeds.
- Agility is again somewhat common among quadrupeds (Zebstrika, Rapidash, Sawsbuck via breeding, Girafarig)
- Much like Spark and even moreso, Wild Charge as level-up works even if the base form is not Grass (consider how Popplio gets Moonblast late). Again, it can be replaced by another move during the pre-evolution stage.
- Grassy Terrain as the last move is consistent with how Primarina's movepool ends with Misty Terrain, and fits nicely with Electric Terrain as a starting move.

- Nature Power is common on Grass-types and should pose little problems since Boomburst and Energy Ball are mandatory.
- Snarl, Roar, Echoed Voice in order to fit the sound theme forced by Boomburst.
- Smart Strike due to its noticeably sharp horns.

Total moves: 71
I chose not to pursue a highly specific flavour, and just put in what was strictly required plus some more generic, fitting moves. Think of this as a plain submission to complement the fancier ones.

When thinking about flavor for Caribolt and trying to incorporate Boomburst into the movepool, I thought of its antlers. They're supposed to act like a railgun, which requires a lot of energy. You might not know this, but electricity is pretty loud. So keeping that in mind, I decided to focus on giving Caribolt a lot of sound-based flavor as it grows in strength. It also learns a number of tackling moves, with its move upon evolution being Double-Edge. Finally, as a Grass type and a starter it is greatly in tune with Nature, so it learns Nature Power and Natural Gift naturally.

Heart Scale moves include Electric Terrain which makes sense there, and then the combination of Lock-On and Zap Cannon which I felt best resembled the electric railgun effect, along with Boomburst to replicate the sound upon firing. Prior evolution moves focus more on the Grass-type, as like Turtwig, Chespin, and Rowlet, some Grass starters don't have their final secondary type in their first stage.

Egg Moves focus on some of the other physicality that isn't first nature to Caribolt (using its body more tactically or its hooves), as well as Charge since Caribolt focuses most of its energy on discharging when ready rather than maintaining a charge.

Simple enough, the event allows you to use Celebrate with the strongest STABs on either spectrum, and comes with a White Herb to mitigate Leaf Storm's SpA drop. Metronome is included as a CAP Event Move because everyone likes Metronome CAPs.

Tutors primarily focus on STAB and Normal Moves, as well as Signal Beam which is common to Electric types. I also added Pain Split as a Pokemon constantly trying to balance its energy output and Super Fang because it gets a re-typing from Galvanize.

TMs include required moves, standard grass and electric flavor like Light Screen and Safeguard, sound moves including Echoed Voice and Snarl, and finally Smack Down and Flash Cannon as flavor moves that incorporate the railgun-like usage of Caribolt's antlers.

Banned deucer.

There's been a lot of controversy about Ice-type flavor for Caribolt. People were saying there wasn't enough reasoning to give it a frosty flavor in the movepool. So, I'd like to list a few things:

Magistrum already said Caribolt's design was based off of the Irish Elk. The Irish Elk is an extinct species of deer in the genus Megalocerus (referencing it's big antlers). The Irish Elk lived during the Pleistocene (or, as all of you know it, the Ice Age);

The Ice Age was a period of repeated glaciations and sheer cold on the Earth's surface. The temperatures were extremely low and animals that lived in the Pleistocene had all adaptations to survive the cold. The same can be said about the Caribolt, with it's huge coat - one of the most notable things of it's design, in my opinion;

Deer and moose are animals that are frequently seen in cold regions;

Caribolt's leaves, as Magistrum said, are based off of the Holly, referencing Christmas. And, although the holly isn't commonly found in very cold locations, it certainly gives cold vibes because of all the Christmas stuff;

The main argument against giving it strong Ice-type flavor is: "Empoleon is an emperor penguin doesn't get Sheer Cold". Well, technically, Empoleon's name resembles the emperor penguin, while it's actual body structure is more similar to magellanic penguins (their body stripes patterns are extremely similar to the patterns of Empoleon's metalic stuffs) and royal penguins (with their "hair" resembling the trident on Empoleon's head) - similarly to our dear Smokomodo, that isn't even based off of a Komodo;

Royal penguins and magellanic penguins aren't commonly found on places with harsh temperatures. The magellanic penguins, for example, rather stay in more warm places - they even lay their eggs in beaches in South America-, and even with that, Empoleon learns quite a nice amount of Ice-type moves;

Caribolt's concept art references it using it's antlers as a cannon, which is also very nice justification for things like Aurora Beam.

I could spend a few hours talking why Caribolt should be able to have access to things like Aurora Beam and Sheer Cold, but I think these arguments are enough. If anyone has any questions, I will gladly answer them.

Festive Illuminations
Caribolt's movepool here is filled to the brim with flavour that is inspired by Christmas, and various lights. We actually start with the movepool pattern, which goes from 3-3-5, to 4-4-5, to a plain 5 level gap. The 3-3-5 was inspired by Jingle Bells - 3 Syllables, then 3 Syllables, then 5 Syllables. The starting level of 4 was broadly inspired by the 4/4 Time Signature of Jingle Bells as well.

I wanted to play up the idea of 'lights' and Rudolph throughout this movepool. Moves which are commonly associated with 'light' (think Pokemon with Illuminate) are present throughout the Level Up movepool, including Confuse Ray, Flash, and Signal Beam.

Finally, I felt as if including a way for Caribolt to truly be a Reindeer pulling a sleigh was a good idea. Given that most sleighs do require some form of flight, and due to concerns over Z-Fly et al., Caribolt's final move is Magnet Rise, which imparts much the same flavour ideas.

Railgunner
One of Caribolt's most distinctive features is the presence of a large railgun mounted to it's head. Also known as... it's antlers. In order to provide the feeling of Caribolt being a walking railgun in line with Vikavolt, it's Level Up movepool includes the moves Zap Cannon, Bullet Seed, and Seed Bomb. These moves play up the more literal idea of a railgun propelling a projectile, whilst the Beam moves fulfil a similar role found on other 'cannon'y Pokemon like Remoraid.

Boomburst also falls into this category! It's quite easy to envision that a railgun would be able to create a heck of a racket, and that is how Caribolt is capable of producing a massive wave of sound. A similar Pokemon that creates a Boomburst without inherently being tied to "SHOUT VERY LOUD" would be Vibrava/Flygon.

Charge Into Battle!
Caribolt has a lot of options where it gets up-close and personal with the opponent - emphasising that whilst Caribolt is a walking railgun, it's not incredibly slow in the way that Vikavolt is. Wild Charge and Body Slam are a large part of Caribolt's movepool in the late-game, whilst options like Spark and Quick Attack are part of how Caribolt would be used in the early- to mid-game.

There is a notable exclusion here though - Horn Attack. None of the current pokemon with antlers of this style have Horn Attack - with the users tending to have sharpened horns or tusks, as in Donphan or Bouffalant's case.

Miscellaneous Items
We've covered pretty much every choice made, with perhaps the exception of the Terrains. I always like it when similar moves are stored together in the HS block - consider how Gliscor's Fang moves are all together.

Egg Group
Inspiration taken from Sawsbuck, which is also pure-field. Whilst it is very tempting to borrow the Grass Egg Grouping, there is a lack of mammals within that egg group that has led me to adopt caution on that front.

Double-Edge
Compounding previously established 'charge into battle' flavour, Double-Edge is fairly common on quadrupeds with a somewhat equine build (reasonably large body, long legs), with the Blitzle, Deerling, Mudsbray, Skiddo, and Ponyta lines all grabbing the move by Level or by Egg.

Double Kick
This is blatantly stolen as an idea from Sawsbuck and Stantler, both of which pick up the move. As a public service announcement, do not stand behind horses and the like, unless you have a desire to spend some time in a nearby hospital.

Natural Gift
With Caribolt literally made of Holly, which tends to include holly berries, it makes sense for Caribolt to be perfectly capable of using berries in it's attacks!

Power Whip
Power Whip is drawn from the Egg Moves as a move I wasn't particularly feeling in the Level Up movepool, owing to a lack of visible vines. Still, it's perfectly solid Grass-type flavour not just tied to visible vines, as is seen on Roselia, and it even comes with a hint of 'controlling a herd of reindeer' vibes, which you might also get from Tsareena.

Oh, and since I can already feel people on my back about it being Smeargle only: Smeargle is very often the sole donor of egg moves! Consider the case of Oshawott, another starter sitting plainly in the Field Egg Group, and who's only access to it's egg move Sacred Sword comes from Smeargle.

Present
I'm in a festive mood on this movepool, if ye hadn't noticed yet. Present does get a surprisingly wide distribution, including Miltank, Granbull, and Togedemaru, and it is excellent flavour to cement my prior thematics.

Rapid Spin
Uh... ummm... tell y'all what. I'll just link this, and I'm sure you can visualise how a giant elk would be capable of conducting a Rapid Spin. Hey, if Avalugg gets it...

Spotlight
I promise this is the last one! I wanted to play homage to another notable 'light' move, and Spotlight's flavour mechanisms of being a 'guiding light' seemed completely appropriate on a movepool which has taken a substantial amount of inspiration from Rudolph and Santa's Reindeer.

Most of these are pretty obvious. Flash Cannon play up the 'light' thematics, as well as gelling well with the notion of railguns (Dazzling Gleam would join it if not for Cyclohm). Meanwhile, Echoed Voice is included as a homage to carol singers.

Electric and Grass moves aplenty - and I don't think there's anything outrageous. Electroweb is the biggest stretch, but hardly surprising when the likes of Ampharos and Electivire get the move with no issues.

Celebrate to mark the event, Horn Leech as the 'Sig' move, Wild Charge is complementary STAB, and Metronome is for consistency with our current CAP with event moves, Kerfluffle. Bottle Cap (Japanese: Silver Bottle Cap) is derived from CAP25, the Silver Anniversary of sorts. OT: Cooper harks back to the originator of CAP, Cooper, with the ID being their Smogon user number.

CAP Triple Crown

I generally think flavor arguments aren't worth having, but the push for Ice moves is just asinine. Let's not forget that our flavor also needs to be consistent with Pokemon logic and move distribution too. Sheer Cold is the most asinine considering with the exception of Kyogre, only Ice types learn it. Aurora Beam is learned primarily by Water and Ice types, and then there's Xerneas who is probably doing the light-based flavor justification above considering its antlers are prismatic. And then there's Magearna just.... because, apparently. Maybe it has an internal refrigeration unit to avoid overheating. Suicune gets it for being the North Wind, Octillery gets it because it's a beam and Octillery is a beam meme.

I don't think I need to make a long dissertation on why Legends or Ubers flavor shouldn't be applying to *starter* CAPs. But there are ZERO examples of non-Ice type "cold climate" justification for Aurora Beam, and only one light-based one and that's Xerneas which is an Uber with prismatic antlers. One could argue (and some have) about Finneon and Tentacool having light-based, but again, as Water types they already tend to have Ice moves anyway. Ice moves on Caribolt are a longer stretch than Hitmonlee's legs.

Finally, Aurora Beam itself is directly superior to Hidden Power Ice, and allows BoltBeam Special coverage with a Z-Move (weak as it may be at 120 BP). While I don't anticipate it having any real competitive impact even on some makeshift Work Up BoltBeam Z-Set, it's the principle of it being very weaselly that concerns me.

You can call me Jiggly

Okay, so I'm going to ignore Cresselia and Magearna here because there's clear examples of non-legends recieving Aurora Beam purely on the basis of light-based thematics.

Starmie's a pretty obvious one - it's ability is literally Illuminate (It's a shame that it only got Egg Moves in Gen 2, but the flavour was just as valid waaay back when than it is now). But there are others, as I pointed out on Discord;

Tentacruel, for instance. Quoth the UM Dex Entry: "It communicates with others of its kind by lighting up the red orbs on its head. When the orbs are blinking, it's a warning sign."

Lumineon, maybe? UM Dex Entry: "They traverse the deep waters as if crawling over the seafloor. The fantastic lights of its fins shine like stars in the night sky."

I concur that 'Cold Climate' is not a favourite reasoning, and frankly I think the only Ice attack I can see is Aurora Beam, but I'm going to defend the flavour choices I make, especially when they are literally bound in the literal science behind an attack.

edit @ Deck Below: We are in a thread where people are going to judge each other on movepool patterns and obscenely specific Heart Scale restrictions, I think it's perfectly fair for us to assume minor nerdishness :P. Oh, and editing your post without mentioning it so my line looks out of context or ignoring your next sentence is rude :<

We Eat Losers

Its really up to the creator of the movepool with certain aspects of flavour. Dogfish heavily leans into the Rudolph angle, having Christmas and light projection as major inspiration for most move pool choices. Similarly, others tend to lean into the Caribou angle with its Arctic habitat, thus have a surplus of ice type move flavour (going as far as to call it a subtype of sorts). And hey, going down those paths are cool. But in doing that, you have to make sure in doing so you don't violate competitive rules or established GameFreak flavour (as established as it can be). Aurora Beam makes ton of sense flavour wise, especially due to Dog's Rudolph-lighty-Christmas-North Pole angle, but it does have competitive impact - its a slightly stronger HP Ice that allows you to run another Hidden Power. I'll wait on cbrevan's thoughts on that. The whole Ice flavour is very subjective, so I wont comment on that, but one thing isn't. Sheer Cold is almost an exclusive Ice type attack, and outside of events (and events in general should never be a basis of flavour reasoning - Sableye gets Octozooka via event), only two non ice types get the move, Kyogre and Suicune, two legendaries. One of them only got the attack because its counterpart Groudon has access to a OHKO move and to balance it out they gave it the one that makes the most sense. Suicune straight up gets it via level only in Gen 7, and thats so the previously event only Sheer Cold could be accessible to it naturally. So, if legendaries are the only off STAB mon to naturally learn it (Ho Oh gets Giga Drain and Groudon gets Thunder to note), its a bad point to base your movepool on.

If you feel that you want a Deer Pokemon with Sheer Force flavour, go ahead and create one yourself. But this isnt a personal Pet Project, this is CAP. These Pokemon represent a brand and will be under constant scrutiny. Something as simple as typing immediately had detractors and people to attack its logic. So imagine us granting Sheer Cold to a non Ice Pokemon that is supposed to be a starter. The backlash would be massive! We find it hard enough to justify stuff like Overheat Aurumoth, but at least they have our "competitive reasoning" to blanket it. Sheer Cold has no such luxury. Your putting up a move purely for flavour that, based on GF, has no business being on it. No matter how you feel, and no matter how many loosely tied arguments that are easily broken apart by FACTS you make, one thing remains - Sheer Force is for the most part, an Ice type exclusive move. Any argument made to grant it can and will make more sense on existing Pokemon that do not learn the move, and no argument can be made to disprove the undeniable facts that already exist in regards to distribution of this attack. I hope you all have a good day.

CAP Triple Crown

Starmie's a pretty obvious one - it's ability is literally Illuminate (It's a shame that it only got Egg Moves in Gen 2, but the flavour was just as valid waaay back when than it is now). But there are others, as I pointed out on Discord;

I just want to inform people who aren't total nerds like myself and DF that Staryu / Starmie get Aurora Beam through Egg Moves that were coded into Generation 2, even though as Genderless Pokemon Staryu couldn't breed with anything in its would-be Egg Group to get them. Please don't post about how you can't find Aurora Beam Staryu / Starmie in the Showdown Dex. >_<

I followed a pattern similar to the recent starters such as Serperior and Chesnaught. I added a lot of flavor moves, heavily referencing 25g's design. As other common starters, it starts with weaker moves such as Tackle, Absorb and Growl, as well as nice flavor options like Ion Deluge and Horn Leech, the later which is also our evolution move of choice. Early on the moveset, it gets common Grass- and Electric-type move that are staples in common pokemon of these types such as Spark and Shock Wave as well as flavor moves like Double Kick and Take Down, that are common in deer-ish pokemon like Sawsbuck and Stantler. Midway through the movepool, it gets Stomp, Wild Charge and Giga Drain, powerful STAB/flavor options. In the later parts of the movepool, it gains Zap Cannon and Sheer Cold - referencing it's static design as well as it's Elk inspiration (an animal that is found in cold places). It also gains the powerful Double-Edge, common in deer-ish and horse-ish pokemon.

CAP25g-1, CAP25g-2 - Feint Attack
CAP25g-1, CAP25g-2 - Quick Attack
CAP25g-1, CAP25g-2 - Shock Wave
By a prior evolution, we get Shock Wave and Quick Attack, moves that are commonly seen in this category on a few starter pokemon's movepool. We also get Feint Attack, common in pokemon like Deerling.

Since this is a Celebration CAP, I decided to give it Celebrate in an event. I added an extra event for flavor celebrating Christmas - Present is obvious and Magnet Rise because of Santa's flying reindeer.
Thank you, Dogfish44 for kindly allowing me to use your event teamplate!

Snore
Electroweb
UproarShock Wave
Giga DrainSynthesis
Endeavor
Icy Wind
Seed Bomb
Hyper VoiceKnock Off
Not much to say. We get access to the moves we need in Synthesis and Knock Off as well as flavor moves like Icy Wind and Shock Wave. I removed Bounce, although it is very flavorful, it can mess around with our checks and counters list.

Grass Pledge
Frenzy Plant

Aurora Beam (Ninetales-alola)Sheer Cold (Ninetales-alola)Boomburst (Exploud)Power Whip* (Venusaur)Rapid Spin (Excadrill)Electric Terrain* (Ampharos)Grassy Terrain* (Venusaur)Body Slam (Meganium)Natural Gift* (Cherrim)
Here are some moves I didn't think would quite fit in the learnset, like Boomburst and Rapid Spin, as well as flavor options like Aurora Beam and Sheer Cold. I put it on the Field and Grass egg-groups to get those moves, while also referencing it's design (similar to other pokemon in Field and Grass egg groups).

There are very few Grass-types that are explicitly connected to cold climates, as the vast majority are based off tropical plants. Abomasnow is an obvious exception, and Ludicolo gets Ice moves probably because of its Water-typing more than anything else. However, Shiftry is based off of a Japanese avian yōkai and it learns Icy Wind. So I think we are overdue for another Grass-type that gets some (reasonable) icy flavor. I can think of no better candidate than a pokemon that's largely based off an Irish Elk and named after a friggin reindeer. Do you know what the native range of caribou looks like on a map? It looks like this:

I feel like Aurora Beam, Icy Wind, and other weak Ice-type moves are very flavorful on Caribolt, although I agree that Sheer Cold as a capstone move is extreme. But that's why I made my own movepool submission instead of attacking iFeedback. Also, I was an outspoken opponent of Ice Beam from the start, yet I put Aurora Beam as flavor in my level-up movepool. I clearly didn't do the latter for weaselly power reasons. If cbrevan disagrees, and he thinks Aurora Beam or Icy Wind is too strong, that's what legality checks are for.